CeBIT: Mulally: 2 million Sync-equipped Fords in Europe by 2015

March 1, 2011

Ford CEO Alan Mulally said Tuesday he expects nearly 2 million Sync-equipped vehicles on European roads by 2015.

In a keynote address at the CeBIT high-tech fair in Hanover, Mulally said he was confident the Sync voice-controlled connectivity system , which has been sold 3 million times in the US, will find large customer acceptance in Europe as well.

Calling Sync a “a smart and simple way to connect drivers with in-car technologies and their digital lives,” Mulally promised the system “will reinvent your experience.”

To get the technology ready for Europe, Ford will expand its vocabulary from three to 19 languages.

SYNC was originally launched in North America in 2007 with three languages. The Europeanized system can recognize 10,000 voice commands in any one of the available 19 languages, and can cope with variances in accents, vocabulary and local dialects, Ford said.

The first Sync-equipped Ford will be the Ford Focus, which will go on sale next year.